Her Hometown Redemption

by Rachel Brimble

  Everything else was second to facing Sasha right now. Including the way she’d left Liam a second time.

  Tanya snatched up her purse and got out of the car.

  Her legs trembled as she strode the short pathway to the house. Taking a deep breath, she rang the bell and waited.

  “I got it! Don’t you look at me like that, John Jordon.” Sasha’s voice practically shook the door. “I just might take you upstairs to the bedroom and wipe that smile off your face.”

  Tanya barely had time to bite back her smile when the door swung open and she came face-to-face with undoubtedly the fierier of the two Todd sisters. She waved her hand. “Surprise.”

  Sasha’s eyes widened, her mouth dropped open...snapped closed again, before she emitted a shriek and threw her arms around Tanya, almost sending her teetering to the concrete paving slabs.

  “Wow, I guess you’re glad to see me,” Tanya mumbled into her sister’s shoulder. “That makes me happy.”

  Sasha squeezed Tanya before pulling back and holding her at arm’s length. Sasha grinned. “Why wouldn’t I be? With you here, it means I have someone else on my side to beat my fiancé to a pulp.” She tugged Tanya inside. “Come on in. John’s in the kitchen pretending he knows how to mix a gin and tonic. You want one?”

  “I’d better not.”

  “I’ll grab you a can of soda.”

  Tanya closed the door and followed Sasha along the hallway into the kitchen. John turned around from the limes he was cutting at the kitchen counter. “Well, look who’s here. How are you?”

  “Great, thanks.” Tanya straightened her shoulders and faced off the clear wariness in John’s gaze. “Just came for a short visit. I hope that’s okay?”

  Before John could answer, Sasha took the overnight bag from Tanya’s hand. “Of course it is. Let’s leave Tom Cruise to his cocktails and take your bag upstairs.”

  She grabbed Tanya’s arm and spun them from the kitchen, pulling Tanya along so fast, she braced for the g-force. They sped upstairs and into the guest bedroom.

  Tanya looked around the room, trepidation of what she had come to say rippling through her. “Who would’ve thought Sasha Todd would ever be happy living with a man, making a home and settling down?” She turned and met her sister’s gaze, guilt pressing down on her that what she had to say could be the proverbial bomb that exploded Sasha’s contented life into a million pieces. “You are happy, right?”

  Sasha narrowed her dark eyes and crossed her arms. “I am happy, yes, but enough with the chitchat. What’s wrong?”

  Tanya swallowed and dropped her purse onto the bed, her back to Sasha. She forced a laugh. “Can’t I at least have that soda first?”

  “No.”

  Tanya briefly closed her eyes before turning around. Sasha stood in the exact same spot, her face somber and her intelligent eyes alert. “Well?”

  Knowing stalling the inevitable wasn’t fair to Sasha and cowardly of her, Tanya waved toward the bed. “You’d better sit down.”

  Sasha slowly dropped her arms and walked to the bed. She sat and looked at Tanya. “I’m sat. Give it to me.”

  With her heart pounding, Tanya slowly exhaled and held Sasha’s gaze. “I’ve found Davidson. He’s under arrest and at Templeton’s police station, as we speak.”

  “You found him? Oh my God.” The color slipped from Sasha’s face. “You found him? You found Matt Davidson?”

  “Yes.” Further guilt twisted Tanya’s heart to see such undisguised fear leap into Sasha’s eyes. Tanya took her sister’s hand and held tight. “It’s going to be okay.”

  Sasha snatched her hand from Tanya’s and shot to her feet before striding to the window. “Don’t say that. Neither of us has any idea if that is true.” She spun around. “Do you think if I thought for one minute you’d actually find him, I would’ve suggested you go back to Templeton?” She clasped her arms tightly across her chest. “I agreed to this so you could lay to rest this unsubstantiated guilt you could have done something to help me back then. Not this.”

  Tanya froze. “What?”

  Sasha shook her head. “I saw the change in you, the look in your eyes, back in the hospital. I knew you needed to work on yourself before you could move on. Getting you back to the safety of the Cove was my priority, and even when you mentioned finding Matt Davidson, I thought you could go ahead and look for him because after everything John and I did to find him, he’d disappeared.”

  “So I’ve upset you?” Tears burned Tanya’s eyes. “I’ve done the last thing you wanted?”

  “I don’t know.” Sasha exhaled a shaky breath. “At least not yet. So what do we do now?”

  Tanya longed to wrap her arms around Sasha, to hold her as she should’ve so many times before. She moved to stand. “Sash...”

  Sasha raised her hand. “Stay there. Just tell me what happens next.”

  Tanya sat. “Liam told me the police can only hold Davidson for a limited time without evidence to charge him.”

  “Evidence?” Sasha’s eyes widened with disbelief. “We have no evidence. What he did...he did years ago. It’s his word against mine.”

  Tanya clenched her jaw as anger toward Davidson slipped through her veins. “You have your word and you have Mum’s word. Hell, you have John’s testimony of what Kyle said to him at the prison. We’ll get him, Sash. Davidson will pay for everything and everyone’s lives he’s tainted.”

  Her sister’s eyes glazed with tears and Tanya’s heart ached as she patted the bed to her side. “Sit down, Sasha. Please.”

  The seconds beat out like minutes. At last, Sasha angrily swiped at her cheeks and walked forward. She shoved Tanya’s overnight bag violently across the bed and sat.

  Tanya reached for Sasha’s hand, pushing some hair from her face before she stared deep into her sister’s eyes. “We’ve got this, okay? We’ve got this together.”

  Slowly, the fear left Sasha’s gaze and was replaced with sadness. She nodded. “Okay.” She pulled her lips tightly together and closed her eyes. “And Liam has been with you all the way through this?”

  “Yes, but please don’t blame—”

  “I don’t blame him.” Sasha opened her eyes. “The man has never stopped loving you, no matter how much he denies it. He was part of the reason I sent you back there. But not for one minute did I think you’d haul his ass into a bloody manhunt.”

  They both smiled.

  After a moment, Sasha’s eyes turned somber. “I can do this. I can testify and get that animal thrown in jail where he belongs.”

  Relief washed through Tanya and she reached for her sister. “Oh, Sash—”

  Sasha held up her finger. “On one condition.”

  Tanya dropped her arms. Now was not the time for hugs and happy forgiveness. “What? Anything. I love you. All I wanted was to do something to make up for not being there for you all those years ago...and you being there for me whether I deserved you to be or not.”

  Sasha’s gaze softened...a little. “And that means the world to me, but...”

  Tanya raised her eyebrows. “But?”

  “I want you to get in your car first thing in the morning and go back to the Cove. You don’t dump your bag or do anything until you’ve seen Liam.”

  “Liam? But what does he—”

  “I haven’t finished.”

  Tanya snapped her mouth closed. Considering what she’d just dumped all over her sister...and Sasha’s renowned and explosive temper...it would be wise for Tanya to err on the side of caution and hear what her sister had to say.

  The anger left Sasha’s eyes and was replaced with an almost demonic mischief. “I was playacting downstairs, by the way.”

  “You were play—”

  “Listen to me.” A flash of irritation gleamed before the demon return
ed. “I was playacting because I knew you were coming here today...so did John. Liam called and told me he loves you. He loves you and made such an ass of himself that you hightailed it out of his cottage with some stupid notion you weren’t good enough for him.”

  Tanya gawped at her sister, heat searing her cheeks and her body trembling. “Regardless of whether he thinks he loves me—”

  “He does.”

  “Well, he seems to have missed the part about how I need to work out who I am and what my future will be on my own...without his help.”

  Sasha tilted her head to the side as though Tanya had just presented her with a mathematical problem rather than the truth. “Is that so? And since when did either of us have a damn clue what we were doing with our lives? Why don’t you swallow that pride of yours and admit you need Liam? You need him, and I need John. There, I said it. I need John. And guess what? It feels pretty damn good.”

  Tanya stared. Slowly, a fluttering started in her stomach. As much as she tried to fight it, her mouth stretched into a smile. “I can’t rely on him. I can’t love him. Can I?”

  Sasha grinned and tugged her into a bear hug. “Of course you can...once you’ve told him about your upcoming court hearing, of course.”

  Tanya stiffened, her heart plummeting to the floor. “Oh, God. How did you know I hadn’t told him that yet?”

  “Because I’m psychic. Don’t you know that by now?” Sasha pulled back and gripped Tanya by the shoulders. “You can do this. If I can stand in a courtroom and face Matt Davidson again, you can stand in a bedroom and face Liam Browne. Deal?”

  “A bedroom?”

  Sasha rolled her eyes. “He might be one of the better ones, but he’s still a guy.”

  Tanya laughed. “Fine. You have a deal.”

  They hugged once more and Tanya held tight to the best sister and the strongest woman in the whole world. Everything would work out. It had to.

  * * *

  LIAM PUT HIS phone down and smiled for the first time in forty-eight hours. Like a man possessed, he’d called Tanya’s cell, buzzed Sasha’s apartment and drove Lucy near crazy trying to find out where Tanya had gone. A moment of genius had made him think of Sasha and John’s place in Bridgewater. Tanya would never tell Sasha over the phone they had caught Davidson.

  After speaking to Sasha, Tanya had finally returned his twenty calls and asked him to meet her at her office after six.

  He glanced at his watch. He had less than an hour to prepare for what he hoped would be the final declaration of his love and commitment to the woman he’d wanted to be with for over a decade.

  A decade. So much time they’d wasted. Two years together, eight years apart. All because Tanya didn’t think she was worthy of his trust and he didn’t know how to trust.

  They’d been fools. He could only pray Tanya’s call meant she’d come to the same conclusion as he had—try or fail, they had to give themselves another chance.

  He stood and snatched his jacket from the back of his chair, picked up his cell and briefcase and headed into the outer office. Suzie looked up from her computer screen, her eyebrows raised. “Surely you’re not leaving for the day.”

  Liam grinned. “That’s exactly what I’m doing.”

  “Wow.” She sniffed. “It’s barely past five, I’d better mark today as the day of Armageddon.”

  “Funny.”

  “So what’s going on?” Her eyes turned soft with teasing. “Or should I say who’s going on?”

  With his renewed sense of trust pushing him on, he smiled. “Tanya called. I’m meeting her in a while and thought I’d pick her up something nice.”

  “Something nice as in diamonds-and-gold nice?”

  He grinned. “Maybe not that nice...at least not today.”

  Suzie laughed. “Fair enough. I’m just glad to see you smiling...and finishing work early. Does this mean I get to leave early, too? Or am I pushing my luck?”

  “You leave whenever you’re ready. Tomorrow’s another day, right?”

  He left the office, softly humming to himself in a bid to counteract the jumble of nerves rolling around inside him. For all his carefree banter with Suzie, apprehension about what would be said between him and Tanya lingered. Just because he was certain they could get through whatever the future held, how did he know Tanya felt the same?

  He stepped from the office block and glanced toward the Party Place as he made for the underground parking lot. All seemed quiet from the outside and, because of the shadowed interior, he couldn’t be sure whether Tanya was in there watching him. He marched down the sloped entrance into the parking lot.

  Once inside his car, he gunned the engine and headed for the town center. He pulled up outside Templeton’s small shopping arcade, took a deep breath and got out of the car.

  Certainty rushed through him and Liam pushed the shop door confidently open.

  Twenty minutes later, he got back in his car and headed to the Party Place. Whether he was early or not, waiting any longer to see Tanya wasn’t an option.

  Her office was in darkness except for the low lighting coming from the open kitchen door at the back. He knocked on the glass in the center of the door.

  Tanya emerged from the kitchen. Despite the relief that washed over him, his heart beat faster. She walked slowly forward, her gaze locked on his through the glass even as she pulled back the bolt and turned the key. She opened the door.

  Her smile was tentative. “Hi.”

  “Hi.” Liam stepped inside. “It’s good to see you.”

  “You, too.” She closed the door and gestured him toward the couch. “Would you like a drink? I have wine.”

  “Sounds good.”

  She nodded, flashed him another smile and disappeared into the kitchen. He sat and battled the hopeless question of what she thought or felt. Nothing in her eyes, smile or stance gave away what she wanted to say to him. He felt inside his jacket pocket, and when his fingers bumped the small box, he inhaled.

  Tanya reemerged from the kitchen carrying two glasses of white wine. She put one on the table in front of him and sat. She lifted her glass to her lips, meeting his gaze. “Thank you for coming when I called.”

  He stared at her hair, her eyes, her mouth. “Always.”

  A slight blush colored her cheeks and she softly smiled. “I’m just going to say this and then let you say wherever you need to afterward.”

  Liam picked up his wineglass and took a fortifying gulp. “Go ahead.”

  He put down the glass and faced her. Her pulse beat in the shallow hollow at the base of her neck and her knuckles were white from how tightly she held her glass. Her nerves were almost palpable, and from the look of trepidation in her eyes, not in a good way. He couldn’t bear her looking so afraid to speak...so afraid of him.

  “Tanya—”

  “It’s okay. Please, I have to do this.” She exhaled. “When I was at your house, I told you I didn’t feel good enough for you. I wanted you to move on, be a husband and a father...”

  He nodded, words biting and choking in his throat, but he held them in.

  She took another sip of wine. “Well, it was all well and good, me saying those things, meaning those things, but my stupid heart won’t stop loving you. No matter how much I’m afraid of bringing you more upset and misery over the next few weeks. I love you, but you shouldn’t have to deal with what I’ve done. I have to face the consequences alone.”

  Dread snaked over his shoulders, but no matter what it was she thought was bad enough to deny what her heart was telling her, he would stand by her and they would deal with it. Together. “Whatever it is, tell me. I love you, Tanya. I want to be with you.”

  “I’m...” She closed her eyes and pulled a folded letter from her pants pocket. “I’m due in court in two weeks on shoplifting
charges.”

  “Shop...” Shock rocketed through him. “Shoplifting? You?”

  “Yes.” Tears glinted in her eyes as she thrust the letter toward him. “Here. Read it.”

  Her expression was all he needed to know how ashamed and remorseful she was of a time she clearly wished she could go back to and delete from her life. She’d been alone, afraid and hurting all this time. Separated from Sasha, a barely there relationship with her mum...why hadn’t she told him?

  He slipped the letter from her fingers and tossed it over his shoulder. “There’s no need for me to read it. Not right now. I don’t care. All I care about is you. I want to be with you forever. I’ll be with you when you go to court, and I’ll be with you when you come out with a slapped wrist.” He reached inside his pocket and pulled out the box. “Here. Open it.”

  Her beautiful brown eyes were wide, tears slipping down her cheeks as she looked at the box. She stared at it for a moment before snapping her gaze to his. “Didn’t you hear what I just told you?”

  “I did.” He smiled and brushed the tears from her cheek with his thumb. “I love you. I don’t care about the mistakes you’ve made in the past. I’m sure I’ll make more than enough to match them in the future. We both will. We have to try, Tanya. We love each other too much not to grab this second chance.” He smiled. “You do trust me, right?”

  “Do you trust me?”

  “More than anyone else in the world.”

  She leaned forward and pressed a slow, soft kiss to his lips. Gently, she pulled back and opened her eyes. “I can’t garden or cook. I take risks with my decisions.” She smiled through her tears, her eyes alight with tentative happiness. “I’m moody, testy and downright selfish sometimes, but if that’s what you want...”

  He laughed. “It is. I want all of you. Every single part. Here.” He put the box in her hand. “Open it.”

  Smiling, she lifted the lid, her breath catching as she lifted the key. “Is this—”

  Liam grinned. “How about moving in with me and messing up that too-perfect cottage of mine a little?”

  She laughed. “You’re going to regret asking me that.”